I am honored to have the opportunity to be a part of this terrific organization. Since 1996, when Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc. (bSAS) was first charged with expanding Baltimore City's publicly funded treatment system, performance improvement efforts have helped addicts stay in treatment longer and many of our innovative programs have received national recognition.

Sadly, addicts continue to suffer across our City, and their unmet need continues to damage the lives of countless families and their communities. This human tragedy is being compounded by the ongoing economic downturn in Maryland and throughout the nation, which has made it even more difficult for addicts to realize their hopes for a better tomorrow, a job with a living wage, health insurance and renewed family ties.

The addict knows full well the “pushes” out of their life of misery. The daily fear of death in the face of the compulsion to use dominates their lives. Loneliness, humiliation and fear are a very real by-product faced by those struggling with the disease of addiction. Despite their inescapable awareness of these miseries, outwardly they struggle to maintain their denial about the toll their addictions take on their bodies, their souls and their loved ones. Yet moments of clarity and motivation to make a change emerge and “pull” them to seek recovery.

My experiences in the field of addiction are both personal and professional. Like many family members across our country, my childhood memories include the observation of the trauma that uncontrolled addiction had on people I loved. Why they did not see what was happening to themselves and others was a mystery to me at the time. Sadly, poor thinking and compulsive use caused events in their lives that even time could not mend.

My own journey in addiction counseling began with a basic question:  How do people recover from addiction?  The lessons I have learned from the variety of treatment settings in which I have worked and the thousands of addicts that I have had the honor to work with have answered many questions, but triggered others.

This is what I know now about recovery:

• People recover in communities of others who can help recovering addicts journey on the path that they themselves (or others they know) have walked.
  
  
• Families and support systems need to rebuild trust and connectedness.
  
  
• Employers need to understand their critical role, trusting that a recovering person can be trusted and valued once again.

The next challenge we face is to understand where addicts are and help them enter treatment when they have a “motivational moment.” Those moments of realization that the pain and suffering they are experiencing should stop occur often throughout  one’s active addiction. How can we mobilize, empower and facilitate our health centers, emergency rooms, schools and any other place to help addicts get a glimmer that the consequences of their use  are hurting them and help them begin the treatment process immediately.

Recovery from addiction is a process of becoming more hopeful that change is possible  -- that there can be a better tomorrow. I hope to bring positive change not only to bSAS but to the lives of countless suffering addicts, their families and their communities. I look forward to working hard, listening a lot and sharing my vision that recovery is indeed, a reality. 

 

Greg Warren
President & CEO